Saturday morning Bishop Daniel E. Flores addressed a small crowd of people gathered in Washington Park in Brownsville with a story from The Gospel Of John from the Bible.
The story concerns a woman brought before Jesus Christ accused of adultery. Flores relates that the people bringing her before Jesus want something to have against him, and so they urge him to choose the advocated penalty — death by stoning. However, that is not his choice.
“He began to write on the ground. The one who has no sin — that will be the one to throw the stone,” Flores relates that Jesus said.
Flores told this story because he and the crowd were gathered on behalf of Melissa Lucio to urge Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz to rescind Lucio’s execution order.
Lucio, of Harlingen, is scheduled for execution on April 27 on a murder conviction in the 2007 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Mariah Alvarez.
“You can’t apply a death penalty — even in the time of Jesus —without the death penalty itself pointing a finger back at the accusers and accusing them, as Jesus did, of hypocrisy,” Flores said.
At the event organized by Death Penalty Action, the Lucio family and their supporters sought to keep Lucio’s case in the spotlight as they advocate to halt her execution.
A Cameron County jury in 2008 found Lucio guilty of one count of capital murder for causing the death of her 2-year-old daughter on the night of Feb. 17, 2007. According to federal court documents, Lucio told police and EMS personnel that Mariah had fallen downstairs.
The child had been beaten, authorities said.
Lucio denies that she killed her daughter.
Lucio admitted during an interview with the Texas Rangers that she was responsible for her daughter’s death, prosecutors said. Lucio’s appeals attorney says her confession was coerced.
During the event, Death Penalty Action said that they now have documents that state Mariah received injuries while in foster care under the custody of CPS.
At the close of addressing the gathered supporters, Melissa Lucio’s sister, Sonya Valencia Alvares, pointed out a photo of her sister, smiling, on a banner hanging overhead.
“This is Melissa right here, with her beautiful smile. Melissa would probably hug you if you were sad. Melissa was nurturing, loving and funny,” she said.
“I would love for you to one day meet our sister, our mother — our daughter,” she said.
The documentary “The State vs. Melissa” created by director Sabrina Van Tassel in collaboration with the Lucio family, is available to view for free from March 7 – 8 on the website www.FreeMelissaLucio.com.
